Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-03-26

the Indian had Just done the same to his pre-
deceSsors, and they to theirs. including ths
expulsion or determination of a more civilized
race, whom We call the mound builders
The most northern point at which any OF
my informantS have seen their work Is near
Oxford House, on Boat river, in latitude
about 81 dcgs. and about 600 miles northeast
Of this city. Thence southwark only occs-
sional signs of them are found till we reach
Rainy river, which must have long continued
one Of their defensive lines for on it are
twenty five high conical mounds, evidently
built to protect the passage, as they are all
located at rapids and other defcnsible points
The largest is at the junction of American
and Rainy rivers, SO located as to connect
both streams. That is now our boundary
from Lake of the Woods to Superior. The
antiquarians of Canada agree that these
mounds are only burial places by accident,
and that only the bones were laid in them
after the corpse had remained long on a
raised platform. according TO the present
custom of the Indians; and this theory is
strengthened 10y the fact that abundant evi
dences OF cooking and permanent camp life
are found in the same mound with human
bones
iht tiibdi VI tiit
Canada Indians are even more complicated
than Of those in our territory, especially as
concerns the totem; for no matter how re-
mote the kindred tribe may be, those Of the
sane totem in both tribes arc considered as
one family. Thus Cree man whose totem Is
the bear may not marry a woman OF the
same totem in the most remote and long de
parted band She is his sister They some
1 =
IL is scarcely necessary to add that both
the Hudson Bay company and the govern
ment sternly forbid the introduction
of whisky, and that the usual
number of daring dealers retail
ION the sly" the viiest fire water that ever
carried he'll down the savage throat and i'm
planted the spirit of murder in his heart
And it is one Of the most curious things in
nature that the French half breeds, or Metis,
who readily take on a French polish and are
the most sentlemanly of frontiersmen, when
sober straightway turn TO wild Indians when
drunk. Ten ounces Of whisky will drown the
Frenchman in Nett and turn loose the wild
Ojibbeway who has been all these years lying
concealed in his system | would not venture
70 say that the same amount of the same kind
of whisky would resurrect the Anglo Saxon
pirate in a New York "bruiser," for the inter
val of time has probably been too long; but
it is curious that simple fluid as whisky
should produce such "reversion" up here,
isn't it:
The best result of the British conquest OF
Canada was that it secured a long peace with
the Indians. But the rival Northwest COM
pany grew up and operated from the great
lakes and along our border: SO the employees
Of the two companies fought i'll the wilderness
and stirred up strife among the Indians. The
Hudson Bay company therefore encouraged
Lord Selkirk 10 found a colony here in ISL
II; but the Northwest cnmpanys men stirred
up Indians and half breeds against it. and
they captured and murdered Gov. Semple
and twenty other officials and colonists. And
as the latter companys men were chiefly
French, and the Hudson Bays men English,
there are two conflicting accounts Of that
massacre to this day